Multimedia journalist Pablo Torre recently uncovered a 61-page ruling from system arbitrator Christopher Droney in which details surrounding the outcome of a collusion grievance are revealed. While the league ultimately prevailed due to a lack of “clear preponderance” of the evidence that teams acted on encouragement by the NFL Management Council to reduce contract guarantees, Torre and Pro Football Talk founder Mike Florio discussed key details surrounding internal dealings and communications on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. Later on Tuesday, Florio posted a story in which he castigated NFL media partners for failing to cover this story, which explains why neither the NFL or NFLPA wanted this document to be made public.
During an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Wednesday, Torre explained that the document has witness testimony in closed-door hearings from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, eight team owners, NFLPA leaders, agents, executives and three star quarterbacks – Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson. As part of the expedited discovery process utilized in this situation, there are also emails, texts and a slideshow presentation that Torre argues indicates that the NFL attempted to collude with owners.
“We have Roger Goodell having edited, in conjunction with Jeff Pash, a general counsel of his league, having massaged, edited, messaged what they want the NFL Management Council, the shadowy entity that no one talks about but no one should stop talking about now, to give to the 32 NFL owners at the league annual meetings in 2022 in March, not long after the Deshaun Watson contract,” Torre said.
“Deshaun Watson was, of course to us, most known for all of the sexual misconduct, dozens of lawsuits, all of that stuff that was alleged. For NFL owners, the problem with Deshaun Watson was the fully guaranteed contract he got, and so everything we’re uncovering here — what did Goodell want, what did owners want — they wanted to avoid ever needing to give a superstar quarterback especially guaranteed money.”
Le Batard, who is a former journalist at the Miami Herald, admitted that Torre is doing every important work but that much of it is boring. As a result, he briefly cued up a live video of show contributor Jonathan Zaslow trying to pop a champagne bottle on the streets of Miami, Fla.
Producer Chris Cote then conveyed that one of his uncles lost an eye opening a champagne bottle, which led to extended discussion about what took place. A few minutes later, Le Batard resumed his interview with Torre and asked how he can get people to pay attention to this rather than talking about Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his appearance on Good Morning America.
“I would say that as the NFL’s monitoring my media appearances, which they are, I just like that they had to listen to that as well,” Torre replied.
Le Batard proceeded to question the fact that Torre divulged that the league is monitoring his appearances on media platforms, to which he further explicated the importance of the document and how it is now accessible to the public.
“Look, Dan, I just need to stress that this is a document that neither the league nor the owners nor the union wanted out,” Torre said. “They fought extremely hard. Florio — the sell on this is that Mike Florio is as plugged into this as anybody — he’s as fluent and obsessive about this stuff as anybody, NFL palace intrigue and the law, and he couldn’t get it. And so when I brought it to him, it was like, to quote Chris’ living dad, ‘A dog with a bone.’”
Torre illustrated how the document provides readers a way to access what takes place behind closed doors. On top of that, he mentioned how the NFL Players’ Association was so caught up in internal politics that it did not want people to know about what took place, but if it had been proven in the hearing, could have put billions of dollars on the line. In the end though, the arbitrator was unable to prove that NFL owners listened to the league in this instance. Torre also acknowledged how there is proof that NFL owners have solidarity while the NFLPA only dreams of it and that the document possesses “the roadmap for every scandal you want” and fifteen different stories.
“I’m just saying everybody is trying to figure out how I got this document because that’s how much it means to them,” Torre said. “I am not exaggerating. This is a thing that the richest, most powerful people in sports did not want you to know. That’s the pitch. Do you want to know it or do you not? Do you want to find out or do you not?”
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